The Japan Society Review

Written and directed by Yamauchi Kenji The action starts, tentatively enough, as a well-dressed woman, not yet in middle age, spies a rather shy young man looking in at the party from the terrace. She calls him out for looking at a woman, younger than [...] Review by Roger Macy

Directed by Gary Lennon A Doctor’s Sword had the potential to explore an interesting, off-beat topic – the relationship of Ireland to Japan during WorldWar II. The complexity of the subject expands when one considers the 50,000 [...] Review by Roger Macy

Directed by Huang Ya-li Le Moulin comes from the name of a poetry society in Taiwan in the 1930s. Its authors, like most educated people in Taiwan at the time, wrote entirely in Japanese. This particular society wrapped itself in [...] Review by Roger Macy

Directed by Naoko Yamada Based on a manga series of the same title, A Silent Voice tells the story of Ishida Shoya, a spiky haired loner who comes to deeply regret bullying his deaf class mate Nishimiya Shoko. Yamada navigates [...] Review by Poppy Cosyns

Directed by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams In Kim Longinotto’s observational documentary the line between reality and staging in the profession of female wrestling (joshi puroresu) is addressed with ambiguity. On the one hand, the training regimes [...] Review by George Barker

Directed by Martin Scorsese Scorsese has adapted the famous novel of Endo Shusaku. The novel is set mainly around the 1630s at a time when the violent eradication of Christianity in the early Tokugawa era was mainly achieved, apart [...] Review by Roger Macy

Directed by Shinkai Makoto Your Name tells the story of teenagers Mitsuha and Taki, who have the humdrum of their daily lives disrupted when they mysteriously swap bodies. We see Taki going through the experience of living in the [...] Review by Poppy Cosyns

Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu Director Kore-eda has produced another gentle masterpiece – a family drama dealing with death, desertion, vulnerability, responsibility and loss. That the four main protagonists are women with with strong [...] Review by Susan Meehan

Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima Despite its English-language title, “Kamikaze Girls” actually has nothing to do with war, pilots or even women taking on traditionally masculine roles. The literal translation of its Japanese title is ‘Shimotsuma [...] Review by Simon Cotterill

Directed by Yosuke Fujita The movie is a comedy; Fuku-chan is introduced via his interactions with his friends. His friend tries to set him on the road to meeting the right woman, but Fuku-chan suffers from acute shyness, and comedy ensues. Review by Mike Sullivan